Like many people, I myself happen to have my own set of pet peeves. Things that seem insignificant to others, annoy the hell out of me and put me to my wit's end. I've always felt like converting my mental 'top-list' into words, but never seem to find the time. Procrastination is a terrible thing, isn't it? Well, anyway, in no particular order, here are my top 5 pet peeves. I'll try to explain them as best I can, so you know how NOT to piss me off (just kidding!).

Text Speak (SMS Language) in Real Life

If you're on the internet right now, and you don't know what 'Text Speak' is, then you've been living under a rock and reading from websites from over 20 years ago. I'm fine with people saying "Lol", "Rofl" and swapping a "for" and "to/too" for a 4 and 2, but when people tend to use this in actual conversations (as in face to face), THEN it becomes a problem. There must be at least one person you've met, that for some unknown reason has never developed the ability to actually laugh; instead finishing off humour by actually saying the word "lol". As if laughing was against human nature, they'll just stand there like an idiot with their "lols and rofls" while most of the socially-acceptable people take in a moment of awkwardness before trying to brush them aside like an unwanted leech. This also extends partially to things like emails; where people don't need to abbreviate. If you're writing an email, you HAVE the time to type out the words properly.

Systems that Announce Themselves

Nearly every form of multimedia are plagued with technology that have to announce themselves; sometimes repeatedly. "System critical in three minutes... System critical in three minutes... (Repeat as necessary)". This was actually brought to my attention recently when I was playing Batman: Arkham Asylum. Where Batman enters his 'batcave', we hear the incredibly annoying automated voice that had to list every stupid thing happening. Facial identification successful, doors opening, security measures disabling; yes, I *bleep*ING get it already! Every time something like this happens in movies, my internal scoring drops down a digit. Firstly, it's annoyingly repetitive, and secondly it treats the viewer like an idiot. So there's a lot of flashing lights, a screen is showing a warning, people are screaming but no, we STILL don't get it do we? We're met with a monotone voice (usually woman) droning on about the imminent destruction that will surely come. You NEVER EVER EVER get this in real life. EVER!

Know-It-Alls

I'm a student. That's where I'm pulling this peeve from. Every class just has to have that brainwave who has the answer to every question, and the question to every comment. They're smart and they know it; so they're arrogant most of the time. They'll sneer down at you, over-analyse situations, and try to point out any and every flaw in your reasoning or discussions.

Other Drivers

I'll keep this intentionally broad. I drive, but I'm not really a 'car' kind of person. It's a set of wheels that gets me from A to B. That's it. I drive like any person would; at least how you'd expect most people to drive. I make sure I drive at the speed limit; I-kid-you-not that I am a partial speed-freak at times, but I never go over the limit intentionally. This brings me to what really pisses me off. In regards to 'other drivers', why is it that people have to drive at least 10KPH faster than me. Why, only just a few days ago I was on a small roadtrip back home, minding my own business on a single-lane road (Two lanes; one for each direction of traffic) driving exactly on the speed-limit (I was being cautioned by my passenger every time I went over), and some asshole decided to tailgate me for several minutes before overtaking INTO oncoming traffic. People can be so impatient, and risk their lives for a few extra minutes off the road. I wasn't even doing anything wrong, but when that driver decided to swipe past me, I was insulted.

I also hate multi-taskers. I've seen people on the phone, eating, smoking, even READING while driving in especially busy sections of traffic. I find the time to give them the evil-eye, or simply yell my disgust at them (sure, they can't hear me with my windows rolled up, but it helps). The reason this concerns me as much as it does, is because it endangers my life as well. Admit it; you don't want to be the collateral damage as a result of another person's idiocy.

Deception

Yes, Deception. Hell, no I'm kidding. He's what I hope considers me, a good friend. Anyway...

This is by far, the biggest pet peeve of them all. I see it every day, and it is what annoys the complete and utter *bleep* out of me. I mostly see it with either piracy or advertising.

With piracy for example, I see so many videos from youtube or messages from anonymous boards of people 'claiming' to have say a keygen for a DLC or program. Who knows, you may be looking for some music, looking for a game, or looking for something, I don't know. You find a site that says "download this exe file to get your [insert prize here]". Half of the time, it's plain obvious it's a scam from the get-go; that your supposed gold is riddled with trojans. It's still just as painful when you go on youtube to find all these videos of 'free keygens. I scroll through the comments, and surprisingly enough 9/10 are from FAKE accounts thanking the uploader for their work, while the rest are scratching their heads and wondering what went wrong for them. Using a little investigative work, every one of these 'approval accounts' are mass spammers who happen to falsely validate every video out there offering supposed legitimate downloading, and most of the time their channels are littered with disgusted users who see through their lies and deception.

Advertising is the other side of this jagged sword. It's everywhere and it's deceiving as hell. You'll see a banner off to the side, with an image and unbelievable offer. If you do happen to click on it, BAM, pop-up, redirection and... NOT WHAT YOU WERE EXPECTING. Even the use of sexual content in ads (Good example being Evony, which was a complete scam). This can be everything, and usually is. Not that I'm stupid enough to click on them, but it's incredibly ballsy when I see a stock image I KNOW from elsewhere, being used to as the main selling-point. Don't lie to me. You know exactly what I'm talking about.

Okay, well that's it for now. I think I've rattled on long enough. Post what you want in the comments. I'll listen.

I've been getting many, many PMs regarding my favourite signature, and it's ability to 'rotate' through images. There are also a few other members out there who happen to have practically the same thing, and you'd be surprised how many of them actually came to me first for advice. So, I've figured after all this time, instead of having to go through that silly process of explaining it all to them again and again, I'd just make this informative blog post and redirect it to them whenever needed. ;)

So, let's get started shall we?

First up, you're going to go to a website called: 000webhost.com, and apply for their FREE HOSTING service. Registration should be relatively simple. When you've successfully created an account, you're going to need to create a new domain. So, within your "Member's Area", click the "Create New" button.

You're going to then create a FREE SUBDOMAIN, with a unique name (before the ".net##.net") and also a password that is more than 6 characters and has at least one number in it. When that's done, you should redirect back to the "Accounts List".

You should now see your new subdomain in a box. Choose the "CPanel" of the appropriate domain you're going to host your banner on. Scroll down on the next window to the "Files" Area, and choose "File Manager". You may have to log in again here (this causes me some problems. If you get any errors, close the window and load it up again).

You should now be in the "File Manager". This is your HQ for everything. However, right now you'll be in the root of the domain, and anything you do upload here won't be publicly available. Therefore, you want to click on the "public_html" folder, as that's where all the action will be.

It should be relatively empty for now. You'll want to create a folder. So click the "New Dir" button. Give it a name, and confirm that name. Returning back to the public folder should show the new folder. You want to navigate into that folder now.

Now, into the final steps, you're going to create the PHP script file that's going to organise the banner into it's rotating behaviour. So click the "New File" button. A screen with an empty text field should pop up. This is the coding to input:

This is the template that we're going to use. First up, content type. The three asterisks in the second line will be for indicating what the file time is. There are many different filetypes which are accepted by Neoseeker's system. Here is a brief list of what exactly you can use to replace those three asterisks.

jpeg

png

bmp

gif*Note that the three asterisks don't represent three initials only.

Now that you know what filetype your banners are going to be, you also need to make sure that the PHP script will correctly identify them as such. Therefore, in the second-last line with the three asterisks, you'll replace that with the used file type initials. These are pretty much the same as the filenames as indicated above (with three characters) but the jpeg's initials are "jpg". Don't forget that if you've got 'jpeg' as the content type, that it's initials in the second-last line are 'jpg'.

Next we go onto the middle line, with the hash and dollar sign. The hash (#) represents the starting interger (value) and the dollar sign ($) the final integer. So, obviously the # will be changed to a "1" and the $ changed to the amount of banners you're going to have. (If you have seven banners uploaded for the rotating signature, have a 7 as the final integer. Simple.)

At the top of the window, we'll give it a simple name, BUT with a ".php" at the end of it. That is absolutely important to getting this file to work as a PHP script. You can give it your username, or just call it "banner.php". Then, we're going to save it (marked by the floppy disk icon) and click the 'back' icon. If you ever want to make amendments to the PHP script, when you're in it's folder, find it and click the "Edit" option.

We're almost done. Now we're going to upload all the images you want for the rotating banner. First, you have to make sure they're ALL the correct filetype that you previously indicated in the PHP script. Along with this, make sure that all the files have the correct suffix to go along. Now, every image is going to have to be named with numbers. Yes, your banners should be number as "1.jpg", "2.jpg" and so on ("jpg" filetype used as an example. This may be different depending on your preferred filetype) till your last image. So, in the folder with the PHP script, choose the "upload" button.

It is important to remember that the images MUST comply with Neoseeker's banner policy, meeting the correct dimensions (545x125 pixels) and filesize (About 35KBs), or your banner will not work. Find all the images and upload with the 'green tick icon'. When it's all done, click the back icon and you should find all your images there.

Last step, copy your banner for your signature. Find the PHP script and choose it's "Open" option. A new window should pop up with your rotating banner. Give it a few refreshes to see if it rotated correctly. If you're happy with the results, copy the address in the address bar. That's the address for your new banner. When you're inputting it into your signature, treat it like the address to an image, by inserting it into the IMG tags.

That's it. You're done. Thanks for reading. If you encounter any problems, drop a comment so I can respond and hopefully address not just your problem!

No seriously, it's a valid question. Having only just received the Fallout: New Vegas Collector's edition delivered to my doorstep hours ago, you'd question my die-hard love for the series which I have so proudly proclaimed many times before, when I can somehow find them time to make a blog entry here. Technically, I should be out frolicking within the wild wasteland but for some strange reason, I'm not as eager to play as I once was. It's ironic once you listen to my story.

I pre-ordered the Collector's Edition, costing me an undisclosed sum of money which I was more than willing to shell out.

"The Collector's Edition includes a bunch of goodies modeled after items found in the game, including a set of seven casino chips representing casinos from the game, a special "Lucky 38 platinum chip," a deck of cards with New Vegas character imagery ("Use the cards to play poker, blackjack or Caravan, an original card game that was created by Obsidian especially for New Vegas!").

A hardcover graphic novel, "All Roads," written by Obsidian creative director Chris Avellone, and a making-of DVD are also included in the package."

It came between the hours of 9:30AM and 10:30AM, when I was conveniently absent; driving on the open road. Fortunately I had people home to pick it up. I expected it to arrive today, as I had been eagerly tracking the parcel. For the past day, the website allowing me to track it had been bookmarked as a home page. I was that eager to find out where it was and when it was coming. Imagine my relief and excitement upon reading the words "Onboard with driver" showed on the tracking form. My package was on it's way to my house. Upon receiving it, I was excited sure, but actually wasn't in too much of a rush to play it. I took my time, opening the packaging, reading the comic while the game installed, and going over the DVD. It was very much a pleasure.

After the game had installed, and my DLC activated, I started up the game with much delight. However, the game actually underperformed, technically. A little dismayed, I played for 20 minutes before searching for a solution. Apparently, stuttering while NPCs spoke, was a common occurrence. Luckily, it had been fixed. Another bug involving savegames also found a fix. You see, the the game does have a few hiccups here and there, but it has a very dedicated community. This was the major factor that decided I would purchase the game for PC. The level of technological freedom you receive from the PC version ensures that problems can be easily fixed without having to wait for official patches.

During my online travels, I happened to stumble upon already uploaded Pre-Order DLC packs for the rest of the game, including the Caravan, Mercenary and Tribal Packs. I think you know what I did with them. I've already made a copy of the "Making Of" DVD, and later tonight I'll be going through the task of scanning in all the pictures of the cards and possibly the Comic. Ah, just my little fun things to do.

All-in-all, the game has been very welcoming for this hardcore Fallout 3 fan. The technology hasn't exactly improved in terms of bugs, but it's nice to know that there's a degree of safety thanks to the hard working community bug-patchers out there. However, some of the new additions to the game, especially Hardcore mode, are an extremely refreshing take to the series. Expect to hear more from me!

It's both something to celebrate and to groan about. Just recently, I created my 50th thread in our humbly growing Fallout: New Vegas forum. What to say? Well, I guess it's understandable that I absolutely crave Fallout. The game Fallout 3 was what introduced me to the world of Fallout and actually took me away from Grand Theft Auto being my favourite series. You have to admit, that's a big thing. Before I knew I loved the game so much, I had already cranked in over 200 hours of gameplay. Sure, that might not sound too momentous, but amazingly, this was back in the day where I actually played it late at night when everyone else was asleep and only from around 11PM to 1PM. The reason being that the only way I could play it was on a PC Desktop which could barely play the game. It was a computer that was strictly NOT meant for gaming, and if any gaming was found out on it, I'd get is so much damn trouble. As a matter of fact, from my experience playing the machine for so much, I actually made a Blog Post here documenting how to have 'Gaming All-Nighters'. So, I actually made that with my Fallout 3 gaming experience in mind.

So with my love of Fallout New Vegas so apparent, I decided that I might make a New Vegas info-mag. Something which goes beyond what those 'previews' retailers are giving out, because most are just terrible to pay $10+ for, wouldn't you agree?

It's been a while since I last blogged here. Hopefully people will read this and comment on it. Please do. :(

So, I want to know what people's pet peeves are. What's something that really ticks you off? Me, well, let's see. I don't like people who are on the phone while driving. It annoys the hell out of me. Or people who expect better for themselves because they're the minority. For example, someone in a wheelchair expecting everyone to sympathise with them, even though they're a prick. Things like that. What about you?

So lately, well about a week ago, my Laptop screen broke. The backlight for the LCD screen busted, and it was damn near-impossible to read anything on the screen. Seeing as it was going to cost a mint just to repair it, I said "screw it" and decided that I wanted to buy a new laptop. One that would actually play some games. You see, my old laptop wasn't a gaming laptop at all. It could play Half-Life 2, but with a low amount of FPS (perhaps 15-20). Most of my games weren't suitable for it either, like Fallout 3 (never gonna happen) or GTAIV (even more likely to NEVER play), so I was more than happy to buy a new system. After some looking around, and an unbearable break from Neoseeker, I finally got this HP Pavilion dv6-2113TX laptop with Dual Core 2.5Ghz, 4GB RAM and 1024MB NVidia GeForce 230M graphics card. I must say that I'm though roughly pelased by it's performance and ability to play all Valve games on their highest quality setting at a smooth rate. I've been playing a hell of a lot of Left 4 Dead 2 lately as a result.

Also, if you didn't know, Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker just got released in Japan, and I've been lucky enough to sample it. The game is, well, huge to say the least. Although I can't read Japanese, I'm pretty sure I know what's going on. Luckily, cutscenes in-game are comic-book style with English speech bubbles, so it's not all hard to understand.

Okay, so my trip finished about a month ago. I somehow lost track of my Blog and kind of missed about 3 countries. Don't worry, I plan to go through them all again through these blog posts. This one as you can guess, will be for Madrid, Spain. Let me tell you, it was probably one of the worst experiences throughout the trip.

We had a hostel to stay at for 3-4 days. It was almost impossible to find, even with many people trying to help find it; even police. What's more, it was late at night, dead cold on Christmas Eve, that we spent hours searching for this place. Some people just didn't seem interested in our dilemma. I remember when trying to approach one man in his doorway for directions to our place, that he simply turned and shut the down in my face. Literally in my face. However, soon enough we did manage to find our hostel. That was a terrible moment.

Christmas day, was extremely uneventful. I spent almost the entire day in my room watching Spanish TV, trying to make sense of every word spoken. I think the worse part however was when I got food poisoning from a resturant we visited that night. Can't remember what it was exactly, but I think it involved roast chicken. This illness followed me through the remaining days in Madrid, through Munich and finished in Las Vegas.

One of the terrible outcomes of being sick in Munich was that we missed going out into the snow for the entire time there. One of the great expectations of the trip, to visit a place with lots of white snow, had to be cancelled. So once again, I spent the entire 3 days inside my hotel room in Germany, groaning in pain and constantly taking trips to the bathroom. Looking back, it was definetely one of the worse moments in the trip.

Fortunately, Las Vegas after that got a lot better. I've got so many stories about my time there, especially in relation to the cultural differences between Australian and America. Sorry there my fellow yanks, but frmo what I experienced, you aren't well accustom to your Aussie neighbours. I'll keep you posted on my American journey next blog post.

I'd have a picture here to accomodate this post, but unfortunately, this computer has some restrictions on it. Bah.

A bit of a while since my last blog post. Currently in Oporto/Porto in Portugal. After Japan, we visited Frankfurt in Germany and then Barcelona in Spain. During our time in Spain, we managed to catch a glimpse of the football game staring FCB versus Espanyol. It ending 1-0 to Barca from a penalty.

The entire trip so far has been, well to sum it up quite nicely, cold. Averaging 6 degrees, I'm not quite used to the weather, especially seeing how Australia is climbing to as hot as 40 degrees celsius.

To all those wondering if I've found anything else Monster Hunter related out of Japan, the answer sadly is no. The places we've been to really don't have too much technologically. It has left me yearning to be back home actually. Through these travels, I've suddenly gotten this great urge to play some of my old games again, especially Left 4 Dead and Fallout 3. My god, I wanna play Fallout 3 so much. I am very eager to see the release of Fallout: New Vegas.

One of the things I can look forward to during this journey is America. To be frank, I've actually started to get over Portugal, and pretty much Europe in general. America is what I'm really looking forward to. I guess a major contributing factor would be the language barrier. Seeing as how everone speaks differently here, it makes things slightly harder.

Also, as soon as I get back, I will definitely be buying a damn PS3 and L4D2. That's all for now. My fingers are frozen cold atm.

What a big day today in Tokyo. We had an amazing day yesterday. Where to begin?

Starting off the day at 7AM, we caught the Ginza Line Subway to the Dai-Hi (sp?) Hotel, where we had a Tokyo tour from 9AM-6PM around the city. The subway in Tokyo is extremely efficient. The trains are amazingly clean for a Subway. Windows are perfect (no grafitti or scratches), floor is completely void of litter. Something like thatyou'll probably never find elsewhere in the world.

Funnily enough, the entire tour group consisted of just my family (Adam, Father and Mother and myelf). So we practically had the entire tour and bus to ourselves. Our tour guide, Izumi-San, was a very nice lady who was a very enjoyable person and great guide; always complimenting us on returning to the bus (after an amount of free time exploring permitted) on-time, and I guess that doesn't happen often with large crowds. On the trip, we visited loads of places, gardens, palaces and took a ferry ride. Though I can't remember quite exactly where we went (I don't have the brochure on me at this time), it was an overally amazing experience. Unfortunately, no Mt. Fuji. It was raining and overcast at the time, and we couldn't see it at all. The trip went so well that it ended about 5PM. I think Izumi was pleased about that too, as she was prepared to have the bus driver stop us off where-ever we wanted. Feeling a need to do some shopping arond the city, we set off towards the great SONY building.

The entire building was around 7 floors, showcasing all the different Sony products on offer. Sone of them were way ahead of their time, such as camera which would auto-detect facial recognitions and automatically take a picture when it detected a smile. Another camera had special 'anti-shake' capabilities, which showcased just how well it handled against the shakiness of the human arm. The televisions (all great widescreen LCDs) had an amazing HD picture. Around the 6 floor came the SONY Shop Floor. Finding this to be the perfect oppurtunity to buy a new PSP battery, I asked at the counter. I bought 2 new 2200 mAh PSP batteries for both myself and Adam, at a nice \5,400.

Just when I thought that was enough for the day, we went to a larger Toy Store, of only 6 floors. At the 4th (There were 2 basement floors, so 4th was top) floor, guess what we found? yeah, that's right, MONSTER HUNTER. Oh, and a bit of METAL GEAR. I took as many pictures as possible, practically the entire section. Monster Hunter bags, towels, Poogie Bank, Felyne Plushies, Trading/Fighting Cards, Badges, Rinds, Jewellery, Action Figures, Weapon Figures, Monster Figures, T-Shirts, Posters, Jig-Saw Posters, the list goes on my friends. Imagine my surprise when I was told that my Mum was willing to buy an assortment of these as my Birthday and Christmas gift.

I think that is a pretty neat result. What I would have hoped for instead of Solidus would have been a PMC Soldier. The Khezu, Ceanatuar and Gravios all could have been a Ragiakurusu. Other than that, the turnout was pleasing.

Unfortuanately, the Narga-Kuga actually was missing part of it's tail (entire figure is seperated into 3 pieces) so Adam is currently trying to find a way to contact Capcom and get that missing piece. Wish him all the best, and maybe if you can, help him out too.

For only 3 days in Kyoto, we've found a surprising number of Monster Hunter memorabilia. Our first glimpse of the Monster Hunter Products happened to be the Nachos I mentioned earlier. These were conveniently at a small 24hr shop across the road. Needless to mention, Adam (TM) plans on keeping the packaging.

After locating the local bookstore, obviously our intentions where clear. Find any and every bit of Monster Hunter on the shelves. Sure enough, we hit the jackpot. I counted at least 6 different Monster Hunter books, and some weren't even Guide Books. To the best of my memory, there was a "Monster Hunter" Official Guidebook, "Monster Hunter G (Wii)" Official Guide Book, "Monster Hunter G (PS2)" Guide Book (Not the lack of 'Official'), "Monster Hunter Portable 2nd" Official Guide Book, and a set of children's books. Much like the classic tales you'd find in your bookstore, these ones were directed at toddlers, outlining mini adventures of Poogie and Felynes/Melynxs.

After that, we had been interested in checking out the local Electronics Store. The store, "BIC Camera' had a amazingly huge amount of products, and basically everything we wanted from Australia, was here in the store, at much lower prices. PSP batteries, yep. Memory Sticks. And you guessed it, an entire row of Monster Hunter stuff. Monster Hunter Tri (Wii) was selling at around $33. There was also decorations for your Wii Console and an assortment of books.

There were so many things to list in terms of literature, Monster Hunter related. I'll do my best to list everything. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera on me at the time (facepalm).

That's all I can remember off the top of my head. I think there might have been one about areas too, but I can't be too sure. The MHP2G was around 2100 Yen. The Notebook 700 Yen. And the Small notebook guides around 500 Yen each.

So, what can you guess I got out of all these items listed? Oh, let me list them.

Monster Hunter Portable 2

Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G

An unofficial guidebook for Monster Hunter 3 (tri)

Mind you, they are exceptionally heavy and thick. About a bit thicker than your average bible. Also, by sheer luck, I attempted to buy the MH3 Notebook too, but the clerk advised me that you had to actually write in it, or something. He then, to my shock, pulled out the OFFICIAL Monster Hunter 3 (tri) guidebook. Needless to say, I was jumping over the counter to grab that book out of his hands. I'm pretty happy with my now, heavy collection of 4 'bible' sized guidebooks.

But wait, that's not all. After a year of waiting, Adam and I finally got some new memory sticks. 8GBs, for around 5400 Yen each. This is roughly $30 AUD cheaper than what they sell back home. So all in all, it was a great deal. I think after all that, we've spent a bit much, and we haven't even gotten to Tokyo yet.

Lastly, one final note. I've an important question to ask. PSP batteries. When attempting to buy one for my PSP-1000 (Phat) Australian, the store clerk assured me that a Japanese 2200mHa battery would not work with my PSP. Although I couldn't verify this with my PSP, I would like to know if that is the case. Would a foreign (BUT official Sony product) battery, work on my Australian Phat PSP? I'll have to forgo the opportunity in Japan, BUT in America I will probably attempt to get one again. Would the American version (but Sony still) battery work? Thanks all, and keep reading.

So the name of the game is Japan. Right now we're in Kyoto. Sory, no photos to show just yet. Can't find a way to upload them here. Anyway, loving the place. Had a few meals including some sort of beef noodles. For breakfast, had some sort of meat patty with soup and salad. Don't get me wrong, I loved the food. I'm very much accustom to the food here, as having a Chinese Heritage has enabled me to enjoy eating Asian style foods. So what did we do?

9 Hour trip on a Jetstar Flight to Narito (sp?), Japan. Got their around 6.30PM and took to our Hostel. Got a bit lost on the way too. The Luggage we had to bring was terribly heavy, and Adam (Twin_Master) and I were the only ones carrying practically everything. One nice difference about this country is the huge amounts of vending machines you'll find across the streets. They have everything from fruit drinks, energy drinks to even hot coffee. I especially enjoyed some Peach and Mango Milk Tea. It's cold a bit here too.

The meals that we had have been reasonable so far. Although I've no idea what to call them. I haven't come across anything yet that I would refuse to eat.

Continuing, after a night in our Hostel in Narito, we had to take the train to Kyoto. After breakfast, we realised that we might miss our train, and had to RUN to the station, even with all the luggage we had. Adam and I, carrying the biggest (well dragging) bags had almost been left behind at a few points in time. We managed to catch our train however with only a minute to spare. We then had to change to a Bullet Train for a 3 hour trip. Sure, it was awesome but long. Scenary was rushing past the windows, of course while we both played PSP.

Having finally reached our Hostel in Kyoto, I'm currently in the lounge room using this unfortunately costly Internet Computer. I however had to update this blog, not for myself, but for everyone else.

Then unexpectedly, something unusual occurred. The screen began to glow, a bright white shine that filled the monitor screen. I stood up from the chair, perplexed by this strange happening. The light then broke from the barriers of the monitor, engulfing the entire room. Then suddenly, I was completely surrounded by white, my body within a void of nothingness. I felt slightly off, gravity seemed to be confused, for I felt myself falling towards my feet (as they should) and behind myself, as if I was on my back. It was odd indeed, for I was standing at the time, but simultaneously feeling as though I was lying down. My head began to throb severely, causing me to gasp in pain slightly. I however remained still. Abruptly, another bright light shone into my face, causing me to close my eyes for a split second. As I squinted to adjust my eyes to the intense light, I realised that I was no longer in the void, but in a small room. As the light faded, I realised I was on a bed. I could see the room around me barely, it seemed sterile and emotionless. Uncluttered and simple. The environment was slightly cold, but at the same time the temperature was warm and regulated. I definitely could tell that the place incorporated recycled air. As I glanced across the room barely, the blur of a person’s head appeared standing next to my bed. I once again began to squint towards them to make out their image. Appearing in front of me appeared a middle-aged man, Caucasian with a rough beard and connecting moustache, with slight strands of white hair. His hair was a light brown, and kept short and clean. I saw his lips move, as if he was trying to talk with me, but nothing seemed to echo from his mouth. I moaned slightly in confusion, indicating the miscommunication. He spoke again, this time I heard him, and it was much clearer. “Are you okay? You’re not too badly hurt or anything, are you? Just lie there for a moment and we’ll get you some medication to ease the pain. The Vault always takes care of its residents!”

Wait, what? Did he say Vault? This caught my attention, although I felt too weak to illicit any physical response. I took another glimpse at the man beside me; he was wearing something oddly familiar. His clothing was a blue and yellow sort of jumpsuit. In my mind I knew something was going on, for the man was, to my horror, wearing a Vault Suit. The very same in Fallout. I wanted to say something, my mind screaming in disorder, but I remained motionless. The room went dark as I found my eyes closing again slowly.

In about a weeks time, I'll be embarking my trip around the world. Well, parts of it. The whole trip has been in planning for the year, and the time has finally come, where things are starting to end and the prospect of a brighter future is upon the horizon. Year 12 is almost finished. Only 2 days (half-days actually) left, before I saw goodbye forever to my peers who've been by my side for 5 years. To my wonderful teachers, I give a heartfelt farewell. To the other teachers, I give only silence. To my friends, I give them goodbyes as well, but with the comfort in knowing that with the right kind of effort, I'll be able to keep in contact with them for years to come. The idea of possibly losing touch with my friends, who I've shared such a close bond with over the past few years is somewhat daunting, and I know that I will do everything in my power to keep in contact with them.

Moving on to a less touchy subject, this trip that's coming up. Where will you see my go? Japan's a start. Then onto Spain, followed by Portugal. Germany afterwards, then finished off by the spankin' United States of America. Where exactly in there will I go? I'm not quite sure, but I'll know when I'm there.

I've a plan you see. Although I won't have constant access to Neoseeker over the 1.5 month journey, I'll do my very best to visit internet cafes and post blog reports on my recent stories. I also have a great plan for sightseeing, where every meaningful picture taken will include a laminated copy of Neoseeker's Logo. I'm not sure whether or not to post this in my blog or Loungin', but I'm sure I'll think of something. I aim to spread the word of Neoseeker far and wide. When people ask me what of it, I'll proudly exclaim that I come from an amazing website, known as Neoseeker.com. It is after all, my second home. Though some may laugh at that, I will take pride in it.

The sounds of “O Mio Babbino Caro” rang distinctly from the loudspeakers, scatted throughout the building. The once silently working facility was bustling with people wandering and leaving the premises. The music indicated one thing, the day was done. As I got up from my desk and made my way to my bag, looking around the room to see crowding people hoping to leave the area as soon as possible. Some were busily chatting away with friends, while others were frantically grabbing at their bags. I spoke to no one, but merely looked on towards the mass of people silently as I made my way calmly out of the room. Grabbing my things and casually walking down the stairs, a few people pushed past me carelessly. As I walked out from the building and into the daylight, the sun shone intensely upon my eyes, causing me to slightly squint at first glance. Over the course of a few seconds, my eyes adjusted and I returned them to the ground in front of me as I walked.

I passed across a footpath, then upon a road, and suddenly grass. The lawn a dry and brittle faded yellow; the intensity of the sun sparing no organism to the harshness of its light. The sky was cloudless, with a slight cool breeze. I enjoyed the feeling of warmth in conjunction with the soothing flow of the air, it made me relaxed and my mind at peace. Something which was hard to find, especially during these times of chaos and confusion within my life. Again, people were clamouring amongst themselves as I past them, on my way towards the train station a few miles away; within walking distance. The train stopped at the station with a loud screech of its wheels and the clanking of the carriages. I chose to sit in the corner of the compartment, in an attempt to isolate myself from the public.

Once the train ride was over, and I had made it all the way to my home, I pulled out the key from my wallet and shimmied it in the key slot. The door opened with a slight creek, echoing throughout the room. I called out for my parents, but it was completely silent. The room was void of any person, except for me. “Opportunity” popped into my mind. Loosening my dark blue tie and untucking my shirt, I made my way to the office room of the house. The sun shone throughout the windows, illuminating the entire room with a soft golden radiance. Slumping into the office chair, my hand clasp the mouse and keyboard of the computer. Logging into the computer, using my father’s account (much to his chagrin), I shifted the mouse pointer to hover over the Windows buttons. “Start”... “Bethesda Softworks” ...”Fallout 3”. I smirked, selecting the game.

So this video is what I did over the weekend. I'm really proud of it, and wanted to bring it to as large an audience as possible. It is the product of about 12 hours of hard labour, and previous 'draft' which received some feedback. For more information, please read the Project Info section.

The choice of the song "Your Eyes Open" was partly due to the song being just so good that I wanted to make a 'tribute' video with it on impulse. However, certain symbolism can be (possibly) identified within the lyrics that I thought would also relate to the game, which also influenced my decision to use it. As can be seen below in the lyrics excerpt (See Lyrics), phrases such as a 'lonely road' obviously can indicate the emptiness of once filled streets. Other parts such as "Morning Comes and you don't want to know me..." might be considered from the perspective of the enemies of the Lone Wanderer, all of them meeting a gruelling fate due to the 'cunningness' of the Vault Dweller. But mostly, as is indicated in the title, the main message is to open your eyes to the Capital Wasteland, to watch and realise what the world is like in the universe. In a sense for those to 'wake up' to the world around them. Meh, maybe I'm making all this stuff up. The point is to watch the video and give feedback. ;)

"War. War never changes. Since the dawn of human kind, when our ancestors first discovered the killing power of rock and bone, blood has been spilled in the name of everything, from God to justice to simple, psychotic rage.

In the year 2077, after millennia of armed conflict, the destructive nature of man could sustain itself no longer. The world was plunged into an abyss of nuclear fire and radiation. But it was not, as some had predicted, the end of the world. Instead, the apocalypse was simply the prologue to another bloody chapter of human history. For man had succeeded in destroying the world - but war, war never changes.

In the early days, thousands were spared the horrors of the holocaust by taking refuge in enormous underground shelters, known as vaults. But when they emerged, they had only the hell of the wastes to greet them - all except those in Vault 101. For on the fateful day, when fire rained from the sky, the giant steel door of Vault 101 slid closed... and never reopened. It was here you were born. It is here you will die. Because, in Vault 101: no one ever enters and no one ever leaves."

Music is Keane's "Your Eyes Open". This is the final version of project and will not be subject to future revision. I am very happy to see how this turned out, and a lot of effort was made into ensuring that each scene managed to hold an adequate frame-rate. Multiple versions of each scene were shot, and archived into a mass collection for future use.Project Info- Over 100 clips where recorded.- Everything you see was done from scratch. Each scene is entirely my own work.- Scenes were shot using Fraps, and the in-game console.- Around 90%+ of all clips filmed were used within this.- Over 7 hours went into filming locations.- Over 5 hours went into processing the video.- The production process only started one day prior to filming, with the impulse decision to create a video tribute whilst listening to this song.- Filming happened over the timespan of two days.- Another one of Keane's songs, "Somewhere only we know", was originally considered to be this videos main song.- No mods were used to enhance this project.- Project was made using only Windows Movie Maker for Windows XP

Disclaimer: This song is copyright to the band Keane, and I do not own or claim to own that song. All credits go to them. For more info, visit their website!

http://www.keanemusic.com/

Well it's a lonely road that you have chosenMorning comes and you don't want to know me anymoreAnd it's a long time since your heart was frozenMorning comes and you don't want to know me anymoreFor a moment your eyes open and you knowAll the things I ever wanted you to knowI don't know you, and I don't want toTill the moment your eyes open and you know

That it's a lonely place that you have run toMorning comes and you don't want to know me anymoreAnd it's a lonely end that you will come toMorning comes and you don't want to know me anymore

For a moment your eyes open and you knowAll the things I ever wanted you to knowI don't know you, and I don't want toTill the moment your eyes open and you know

For a moment your eyes open and you knowAll the things I ever wanted you to knowI don't know you, and I don't want toTill the moment your eyes open and you know

Fallout 3 is a game known to be nothing short of spectacular. It's amazingly open-ended gameplay and almost limitless replayability, plus the vast amount of exploration and combat which the player can partake in, is something of which other leading developers should take note of. Building up further on their reputation, a number of high-quality Downloadable Content Packages have been made available to the public, all of which have been released on-time as promised, and also with the addition of quick amendments of 'some' problems by the Bethesda Development Team. There are now 5 different DLCs for Fallout 3. Operation: Anchorage, which lets the Lone Wanderer experience the amazing battle simulation of the Anchorage Reclamation in Alaska, 2077. The Pitt, where the Lone Wandered travels all the way to Pittsburgh to save a city full of slaves from disease and (of course) slavery. Broken Steel, where the Brotherhood of Steel manage to resurrect the Jefferson Water Purifier and begin to restore order to the Capital Wasteland. Point Lookout, where the Lone Wanderer travels to a swamp-folk infested place full of weird cults and a creepy swamps in the midst of Maryland. And now finally, Mothership Zeta, where they'll be onboard an Alien Mothership vessel after receiving an ominous radio signal from the vicinity of a crashed Alien spaceship called Recon Craft Theta.

"Defy hostile alien abductors and fight your way off of the massive Mothership Zeta, orbiting Earth miles above the Capital Wasteland. Mothership Zeta takes Fallout 3 in an entirely new direction – outer space. Meet new characters and join with them in a desperate bid to escape the Aliens’ clutches. To do so, you’ll wield powerful new weapons, like the Alien Atomizer, Alien Disintegrator, and Drone Cannon, and deck yourself out in brand new outfits, like the Gemini-Era Spacesuit and even Samurai Armour." - Bethesda Studios Official Description of Mothership Zeta

The game starts off where the Lone Wandered intercepts an eerie broadcast signal from the Mothership. Investigating it leads them to the crash site for Recon Craft Theta. Upon approaching this site, the Lone Wanderer is suddenly captured by the Mothership above and transported into the bowels of the ship, captured by hostile aliens and subject to strange sorts of experiments. Thus, the adventure begins with the Lone Wanderer attempting to escape from the ship, meeting different people along the way, some even from Earth's past, having been cryogenically frozen for years, that is until the Lone Wanderer frees them.

Upon the ship, aside from the main objective of escaping from the clutches of the Extra-terrestrials, you'll be able to collect a number of 'Alien Captive Recording Logs' and discover the reasons behind the capturing of yourself and so many others over the past thousand years. These collections will provide numerous moments of satirical and dark humour, such as when the aliens try to pump information out of an innocent Brahmin, only being met with primitive responses, or the disturbing log of a captive pleading for his arms to be re-attached.

The characters which the Lone Wanderer encounters within the ship are really just a bunch of misfits, unlike what was expected from what Bethesda stated. There's a woman named Somah (from the present), a young girl called Sally who was abducted from when the bombs first were dropped over 200 years ago, a soldier from the Anchorage war, a Cowboy Sheriff from the Midwest, a Japanese Samurai and a Astronaut from the Gemini Space-Era. There are no signs of a past US President or even Elvis as some people had hoped, and the mood is slightly different from what had been initially imagined after the prospect of 'meeting people from the past'. Overall, this cast of characters, while slightly restrictive in it's own sense, is a lovable bunch who you’ll definitely learn to love and enjoy the company of, as well as provide more than ample enjoyment (and backup) throughout MZ.

The entire DLC is basically much like the Anchorage simulation, just as Bethesda stated. There is really only one large branching quests and no side-quests outside of the ship, which is much of a let-down since the release of Point Lookout and Broken Steel. The main focus of the DLC is action based, not exploring as was encouraged within Point Lookout, although a certain amount of exploration anyway is employed within the ship (it’s simply massive in size!). Enemy Aliens and Abominations within the ship are plentiful and are especially tough at times, what with their advanced technology which allows them to carry strong personal shields against weapons fire. Low-level players will definitely feel overwhelmed by the difficulty of the combat.

The entire environment of the ship, while showcasing very convincing alien technology, still retains that 50's feeling that the world of Fallout tries to capture. You'll venture through numerous sections of the ship, each part very fun to explore through, as different things happen to the Lone Wanderer as he discovers different pathways out of the ship. A few notable places include the Waste Disposal, where the Lone Wanderer can find numerous pieces of junk of some value, but the events of which lead to that area are unpleasant. The Cryogenics Lab, where thousands of frozen 'specimens' can be seen, and even some defrosted to exact their revenge on their captors. There is a Maintenance area where alien robots are manufactured to protect parts of the ship on a neat conveyor belt that you’ll have to destroy to progress inside of. You'll also be able to walk outside the ship in the middle of space, but only if you have the right apparel. The entire site is rewarding with a different, yet quirky section to discover. And what Alien ship wouldn't be complete without a Death Ray? With the Death Ray (specifically in the Death Ray Hub), you can test out the Death Ray yourself and even aim it towards the Earth, experimenting with this dangerous technology can only be so much fun, yet there are surprisingly no adverse effects from shooting a large energy beam towards the face of the earth.

Towards the end of your journey upon the ship, you'll find yourself within the Bridge, possibly the most important section of any Alien Spaceship. Here, you'll be able to experience the game's climactic final battle, in which you are to defeat another Alien Spaceship in an attempt to save yourself from destruction. This particular part is definitely the most fun, despite it being rather simple. You have 3 controls for the power distribution for your ship and one for firing the Death Ray at the attacking ship. Power distribution is easy, you have Shields and the Death Ray, and the choices of Increasing your shields but lowering your Death Ray power, increasing your Death Ray power by lowering your shields, and balancing both out. This sequence it very action packed, and feels much like a sequence out of Star Trek. Each hit you take will see sparks flying and small explosions throughout the bridge, and even your companions (who are taking up posts to aid in your command of the bridge), will stumble and even succumb to the deadly force of the enemies death ray. You’ll get neat status reports (Shields down to 50%!) to also add to the effect. You can definitely be caught up in the entire moment. Your efforts will finally be rewarded with a spectacular explosion of the enemy ship, which you can admire as it breaks apart in an awesome fireworks display.

Overall, this DLC is a very action packed experience, with long and slightly tiring progression throughout the bowels of the ship. The entire sequence, while very enjoyable and playable, is a slight disappointment since what has been experienced within Point Lookout and Broken Steel. There are no side-quests, which mean that once you've finished the quest, that's it. You can't find any aliens throughout the Capital Wasteland, and you can't experience anything related to Mothership Zeta while on land (with the exception of being able to return back up to the ship). What’s more, a huge section of the ship suddenly become inaccessible after completing the DLC, which makes it extremely frustrating for those who have missed some Alien Captive Recording Logs (needed for an Achievement) or hoped to still have fun wandering throughout the ship. However, the ending battle is probably something which redeems this game and it's slightly lacking content. After all this time, you'd probably expect Bethesda to take another bold step forward and try packing even more content within these releases, but it seems technically that they’ve taken a step back. That they’ve gone smaller rather than larger. Certainly it could have been possible to add a few extra quests to spice up this DLC that much further, but seeing as how there is no sign of such; it is quite a let down.

Overall, this game would not be one of Bethesda’s best out of the content released to date. Although it is slightly better than the first two packs (Operation: Anchorage and The Pitt), it still had a bit of a reputation to live up to, which it did slightly fall short of. Whether or not this DLC is recommended, like any of the DLCs available, of course it would be recommended. However, it is in this reviewer’s personal opinion that Broken Steel and Point Lookout still maintain priority over others, in that given the choice between those and Mothership Zeta, it would generally be advised to choose the other two over this. With that being said, Mothership Zeta is still an immensely enjoyable segment which Bethesda should be proud of. They’ve certainly shown others of their ability to create top-notch content, readily available to gamers without delays or lapses in quality.

*Please note that this applies to those still living with their parents and have 'restricted' access to computers or gaming consoles after certain hours.

I remember the times where I had been aching to play a computer game of sorts for the entire night, but there was always the risk of being caught out and having those special gaming privileges being taken away. Fortunately, I made myself a special 'code' to follow which would seem to keep me out of trouble most times, and now I'm passing that onto you guys. This activity usually applies to hours late at night when everyone should be asleep.

Know what you want to play!First off, and most important, make sure you know what you want to play and for how long. Don't waste time licking your lips in deciding what to choose, as you're wasting valuable time.

Turn off all the lights!Darkness is your friend, and can heighten the gaming experience, especially if it is a rather dark and possibly 'jumpy' game. Just make sure you don't get such a fright that you end up waking everyone else. Making it dark fools everyone else into thinking that there is nothing going on. Light will attract others to turn it off.

Close all the doors!If you have doors open, you risk having the light from your monitor/tv screen being seen flickering. Closing doors again leads to more darkness.

Keep the volume low!Common-sense. If it's loud, someone will hear it. Use headphones if you have access to them.

Set traps!Sprinkle something on the floor, have 'creeky doors' closed, have some lights tactically turned on, use your imagination into setting traps. Traps can be useful for example if you want to hear if anyone is coming (works well with low volume), creeky doors will make noise if opened, and this can alert you too. Having lights turned on may be a bit risky, but if someone who has happened to wake up in the middle of the night, they may feel compelled to turn the lights off. This is great for alerting you to their presence.

Have an emergency escape planned!If all else fails and you are sure of imminent destruction, make sure that you have a clear understanding of what to do. Be prepared to turn off your computer/console as quickly and as quietly as possible. Same goes for monitors and TVS. If you need to hide somewhere, make sure that you can access that spot silently, and that it provides maximum coverage. I suggest hiding under tables or in cabinets.

If all else fails, have an excuse!If, by some luck, that you manage to be caught, have an excuse planned in advance. You were getting a drink. You were sleep walking. You ventured in the area after you heard a strange noise. Just make sure it is believable.

Seems like my blog gets few comments on it. So now I ask you all, what makes a good blog post. What qualities does it need in order attract a vast audience and encourage loads of comments? Should I stop talking about my day and focus on other things? Should I advertise it more? What? What the hell do I do!?

Today in school, we had the commissioning of our new bishop. A woman. That's fine. I've nothing against women. We also got given out Swine Flu notices (H1N1 Influenza) warning us that if we have, or have been in contact with a person who has been to areas such as Mexico, America, Europe, Africa, Japan etc within the past month, to quarantine ourselves for 7 days or so to see if we have contracted Swine Flu. Oh, I just remembered that I saw this picture in Loungin's Funny Picture thread which I 100% agree with.

Well tonight, I have another late night of Fallout 3 planned. I have to get The Pitt finished tonight. Maybe I might install Broken Steel afterwards. Or maybe play some Left 4 Dead. Who knows. But then again, I think I should really get my 8 hours of sleep at least once this week.

I'm going to be extremely brief, but at the moment I am at school. They've actually partially blocked Neoseeker, such as viewing game profiles and cheats, but they haven't really done anything else, surprisingly. I can make a blog entry, make a post and still visit my forums. It's great. Although, the entire layout of the site looks extremely basic baecause of all the blocking. For example, the background is white, there are no images at all. Oh well.

At this moment, I am currently in my Business Class with a substitute teacher. It's a good subject, something which I fly through, so I usually mess around in it, like play games. Oooo, well I have to go now. One of the schools hottest teachers has arrived to take over the class. :D

Alright, another day, another late night with Fallout 3 planned. I've just installed The Pitt and plan on playing it late tonight. I always seem to play till 1, and it's such a shame seeing as I have to wake up at 7 for School. Fortunately enough, I've been blessed with unbelievable amounts of energy. I just never feel tired from 6 - 5 hours of sleep.

So today was a Monday. Glorious Monday. Why do people hate Mondays? I had a debate in Economics, but my team lost. More on that here. I had to talk about how Communism is great. I mean seriously, Rome was right in saying that it was a losing battle. However, I was calm and collective. Maybe a bit too calm, but I still had 'fun' in a sense. Everyone else was stressing out about it that it was quite humorous.

I've also got an English Assignment coming up. Well, actually an Oral Assessment. I've decided (though this is yet to be approved) that I'm going to do a Persuasive Speech as Osama Bin Laden on trial for his actions of terrorism. In this, I will try to persuade my audience that my killings where justified and done so in order to gain attention for a much wider cause.

That's all for now. Short I know. I'm in quite a rush to do stuff atm.

Oh wow, I just missed two days of blogging. What the hell is going on you might wonder? I'll try not to forget next time. So today so far has been quite interesting. As you may already know, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite has finally had a demo released in America. Unfortunately for myself, I'll have to be waiting a few extra days for it to release to the rest of the world. Damn it, why do American's get things first? Well, at least we Australians don't get bogged down on quality. Here's an example you may find a bit trivial, but think back to Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence. Americans got their game on time, and also had the opportunity of ordering the special edition version of it including the Secret theatre and other goodies, only if they pre-ordered it. Now Australia/Europe, had a delay in the release of their game. However, to compensate for this, they got the extra content regardless of how 'limited' it was for the US. A good deal in my opinion. Another example involving Metal Gear, MGS4. Notice the differences in the quality of the Boxart in comparison to the Japan, US and Europe? My thoughts would be on how terrible the US version looks. I would much rather prefer the nice Yoji Shinkawa Artwork.

Oh, I also got Operation Anchorage to work on Fallout 3. At the same time I tried to install The Pitt. Unfortunately, on my way to Bailey's Crossroads, I encountered some Raiders and used VATs on them. The game suddenly froze and I had to restart. Seems that with The Pitt, things like that can happen. So I had to uninstall it and now I'm afraid of using VATs again. Well, actually I got over it after successfully managing to get stuck into the Anchorage Simulation, but now I'm scared that The Pitt will screw up my game now. :(

The rain still continues here at the moment. It's been pouring in the past few hours. Funny thing really, it got so flooded to the point where the school actually sent out an email to all parents advising them that if they wish to get their children out early, they may do so. More on that later.

Life and FaithWith L&F first up, today's lesson was meant to be the religious one. Strangely enough, our teacher was absent, so we spent the lesson with a Substitute watching a video about surrogacy and embryos and all that stuff. We had to fill out this sheet asking questions about the video, and I'm am just so surprised I managed to last about 80 minutes through that shit.

MathsMaths. Maths, Maths, Maths. What can I say really? It's much too easy now. While the entire class was going through questions on their worksheets, I spent the majority of the lesson reading through Fallout Wikia printouts on various things such as Anchorage Front Life and Fallout 3 General Tips, List of Perks, List of Skills and so on. So in otherwords, I spent my Maths reading through gaming articles. It's not that bad really, I had already finished what everyone else was attempting, about last week really.

EnglishEnglish was alright. We watched a video of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X's speechs and compared the two. It actually went by pretty fast. It was also about near the end of the lesson that our teacher received a phone call and had to leave us for about 15 minutes to attend to some mysterious 'incident' in his office. He wouldn't tell us what. While he was gone (we were stuck with another sub), a school-wide message notified us about students wishing to leave early due to the exceptionally bad weather. This got everyone slightly confused.

At lunchtime, things were a bit hectic. Students could be seen all leaving and others walking to the Student Reception to get ready to leave. While I ate lunch with some friends, we all discussed what was going on. It seemed kind of eerie at the time, as the school was about 1/4 of the amount of people usually by then. My brother managed to earn us an early trip home by sneaking a call to our Mother. Unfortunately for us, we soon found out that our public transportation (Trains) were down at the time, and we would have to find alternative transportation home. Thankfully for us, we had a friend offer to take us home.

It was quite funny at the office. Receptionists were very insistent on ensuring the parents that this was not in any way an evacuation. I laughed at the concept which was obviously giving the receptionists a little bit of stress. Soon enough, we went to our final class, awaiting our call from the student reception about our friend's parents ready to take us home. We had Chemistry.

ChemistryWith such a hectic day, there were only about 5 (including myself and my brother) present at the lesson, soon to be 2 with myself and Adam leaving and another organising arrangements. Damn, Chemistry will just have to wait another day. =/

We'll, we got home about 2 hours earlier than we normally would. YAY! I managed to sneak about half-an-hour of Fallout 3 before Dad got home, and am eager to actually start Operation Anchorage for Fallout 3. I only managed to get it installed, but I am yet to see if it will actually work/activate on the game yet. Best of luck.

So, another day has passed. Well, as fun as it was today, it was raining. I love the rain. Don't know why though. I've come to the decision that it is most likely because we get more shine than shower. I'm sure that those in the UK beg to differ with this lovely rain. However, one of the things that particularly annoyed me today was having to walk to school. My bag got completely soaked, and so did all my books and assignments. Don't you just hate that? All your good work gets ruined in a simply matter of minutes/seconds?

ChemistryChemistry was just a usual day. We're doing all this stuff about equations with exo and endothermic reactions.

BusinessThis is my best and most favourite class. Partly due to the fact that I can get things done twice as fast as the rest of the class and have time left over to play Chinatown Wars on an Emulator. I still haven't been able to beat this one mission that involves saving these two Triads from this police truck and another accountant and safely delivering them to the Airport. They keep on catching on fire whenever I wreck my car. Oh well, at least Rockstar made is much easier to restart missions.

AccountingA kind of boring and slow class. We spent the class time going over a process of filling out a Cash Flow Statement with GST. Lol, Cash Flow Statement is CFS, my initials! =D

EconomicsAlthough Kazakhstan a Glorious Country, It Have a Problem, Too: Economic, Social, and Jew. - Borat SagdiyevEconomics was so-so. We just finished questions placed on the board. I spent most of the time looking up Fallout 3 guides and articles on interesting topics such as perks to consider, weapons and general tips.

Right, well now I'm off to try and finish that Chinatown Wars mission.

So I was just carrying on about with my day in school today. It was a pretty average day today with a little disappointment at the end, which I'll discuss later. So during my religion class, as I had a little nap and doodled on a scrap of paper, I started to think of NeoBlogs. From there, I started to think of my old blog at Blogger.com. Then, I remembered back to the time I used to post there constantly, and thought why not here more often? So there, I've decided from now to really up my blog posting here. It seems like an okay thing to do. Besides, I need to keep a sort of journal entry for my day-to-day happenings. What good about it also is that you people, the great members of Neoseeker, can actually easily access these posts, unlike the blogger blog which I had to always advertise. So before I continue my rambling, I'll say again, I'm committing myself to posting a blog at least every day or two. Within these posts will be information containing my day-to-day life, thoughts, feelings and whatnot.

I just want to start off by saying that I've been feeling slightly strange today and over the past week. Life just hasn't seemed to be up-to-par with my sort off expectations. It all seems like some sort of prison to me. The best way to describe it is that I feel like I'm in some kind of Matrix. Yes, the very same like the movie. Things just haven't seemed real to me. I feel I'm missing that excitement, that spice for life. It sort of makes me wonder about what lies beyond life. Are we really living in a 'dream world'? I'll talk about this more in later posts.

So what did happen for me today? I had school. What classes? Economics, Life & Faith (Religion/Studies), Maths and English.

EconomicsEconomics was alright. We spent the class typing up stuff about Income inequality. Oooo, speaking of which, I just reminded myself that I have homework to do about it. Oooooo again, just typing that I just remembered that I already finished that work. Wow, I just created and solved a problem. So anyway, during that lesson I spent most of the time looking through an interesting article about Fallout 3 weapons and whichs ones are best used for which types of characters you prefer to play as, whether that be someone who likes fighting hand-to-hand or maybe a minigun perhaps? Hands up if you like Miniguns.

Life & FaithSo this lesson was, like 4/5 lessons, a study lesson. What is a study lesson to the class? A lesson of nothing. Out teacher is really lax about everything. Sure he may not care about school rules and let us do our own stuff, but he is a very mindful person. He usually brings up very interesting social topics within the class that everyone finds very interesting to join in to. However, in today's lesson he was absent on an excursion. So we had a substitute teacher, whom everyone calls Mr.Vin Diesel, since he's well, bald and looks like Vin Diesel. My good friend was sick today too as I found out. So, during that lesson I simply did my Economics homework and wrote doen things to talk about for this blog entry.

MathsMaths was very easy. I dropped to an easier Maths class due to difficulties with the other Maths class. This class is however way too easy for my liking. I'm overly enthusiastic for it though, and people say that that will definitely change over time. My friend from last class, being sick, was also meant to be in this class. I took his seat in the corner of the class. He is extremely territorial about that spot. I felt the urge to 'mark my territory' there, but not in the animal way you're probably thinking of (you sick freak).

EnglishEnglish today, we had to hand in our assignments we had been working on for 3 weeks. I was gutted to find out that this was the due date for the final assessment, as I somehow thought of it as a teacher conferencing lesson. So, I was forced to hand in a draft version of my assignment. We learnt of out next upcoming speech assessment, which was to make a persuasive speech on any topic of our liking. From there, we discussed different persuasive speakers, such as Barrack Obama, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Adolf Hitler (you thought you were seeing a pattern there eh?). We then proceeded to watch some Obama speech videos for the rest of the lesson. Luckily enough, I talked to my English Teacher about my situation regarding the draft assignment, and was allowed to email a final copy by tonight. I've already done so and am extremely relieved. My English teach is such a nice guy. He's really enthusiastic about life and one of the very few teachers who actually say "Hi!" to you and actually are happy to see you.

Well, that's my day for today. I'm not sure what else to add to that, but I thought maybe I might finish it off with something I found in the archives of my old blog. It was a link to a philosophical site, in particular an article about God. I know what you are probably thinking, that I'm going to preach some hunky-dory load of exorcism on your sinful souls. Well, that's not the case. It's an article titled "Talking to God". It doesn't really condemn any religions belief, nor does it really enforce any of them. Just give it a read, and you might find it interestingly insightful. It did raise a few thoughts by myself at the time I first saw it. It does make you wonder, "What it?".

Ah, April 1st. One of the few days I love besides December 1st (End of School Year), my Birthday or Christmas. So what did I do today on this fateful day? Well, I certainly had a memorable day today. Oh, so many things to mention, where to start? Well, I just want to let you all know that I finally finished watching Azumanga Daioh! It is an awesome show in my opinion! I think Yukari Tanazaki is an awesome teacher, and sometimes I wish I had her as a teacher for my school! Just so you know, Yukari is the one on the left with the glint in her eyes.

So as the title asks, what chaos did I cause today? Well, a lot of things actually. The surprising fact is that I completely forgot about today and had not prepared at all. You see, just in the last two days prior I had serious exams. When I got back to normal classes today, I also heard that one of my best teachers in Accounting and Economics was leaving, for real. Man, what a day to announce such a thing eh?

Right, right, getting back to what I was supposed to say, the trouble I stirred up. Well, I did have Dark Dom promoted back to the MHF2 forum (for real). That was a joke in itself, as we all know just how wrong he is for the job. Hardehar! People didn't really believe such a thing would happen, so I guess in a way they got fooled into thinking they got fooled. I also pretended to close down our forum's general discussion (sadly the life blood of the forum activity), by adding the red text at the top which says that the thread had been closed. One member got so worked up about this that they actually created another thread asking what had happened. I mean seriously, the joke worked too well that they didn't notice that they could actually still reply in it. -_-

I also close a thread, but at the same time Twin_Master posted a "thread closed" message within that thread, so in essence it looked like he closed it. That made heads spin a little, before Dom had to ruin the fun and reopen the thread (evil glare). Obviously, he had no idea what we were up to. I probably should have told him prior.

Hmmm, what else? I also made a few fake links, such as links that weren't links, but just coloured and underlined text. I also made a thread in the Monster Hunter Freedom Unite forum that fooled people into thinking of a very quick release of the game. Since I last saw it, it was reported. People have no sense of humour.

Well, that's all for now. I should probably keep up with blogging entries shouldn't I?

When life ends, it gives off a final lingering aroma. Light is but a farewell gift from the darkness to those on their way to die.

So right as I type this, I've got a pounding headache, slight indigestion and am almost on the brink of falling asleep. Mind you, I've been like this half of the day and it is now only 8:30PM. However, at this time I am also uploading more Left 4 Dead Videos and preparing for another late night of Left 4 Dead. Yep, again, I will be playing till 1 or so. I don't know why I go to such extremes, but I am really hooked on the game. I love it so much that I'd prefer to neglect my sleeping habits over it.

Over the past week I've played the game and uploaded videos of it to Youtube. I also plan to upload montages of great L4D experiences to Neoseeker Videos later, since it would be a bit of a pain to re-upload about 2GBs of L4D videos again (Walkthrough Vids of Campaigns).

No Mercy - The Apartments

No Mercy - The Subway

No Mercy - The Sewer (Part 1)

No Mercy - The Sewer (Part 2)

No Mercy - The Hospital

*Keep an eye out for the 'Witch section' of the video. As I turn back to spot it up close, I almost shat myself. You can tell from my shotgun attacks.

Even on the darkest rainy day, lighting can shine through the darkness.

So what happened in your week? What happened in mine? Well, school for one. I finally got back to school after suffering a terrible cold which lasted a whole week. The sad thing about that is I missed out a crucial 1st day of school as a new senior leader. Yep, those lil' tykes new to the school are going to have a very hard time getting to know me. I wonder if they even have knowledge of my existence? As far as I can tell, Adam (Twin_Master) is me as well, seeing as you know, we're identical twins and all and they only got to meet him. Oh well, will make moments that much more comical.

Also, I'd like to announce the the Monster Hunter Freedom 2 Forum as of February 2009, has reached Neoseeker's No.2 most active thread!!! Just short of Loungin'. Great work you horrible spammers, you!

So what else today huh? Well, I've been hooked on Valve's L4D, otherwise commonly known as Left 4 Dead. Adam (Twin_Master) got a friend to buy Left 4 Dead for him, with about $15 being paid towards the game by that friend. This was thanks for Adam and I "Homebrewing" his Slim PSP during the past week. Plus giving him 40+ PSP games (I know, not a real fair 'trade' if you ask me. Still it was all with good intentions and from the kindness of our hearts).

So what exactly is Left 4 Dead about? Well, hopefully from watching that clip, you'll have a fair bit of knowledge already about the game. It's a post Zombie (A.K.A "Infected") Apocalyptic setting with starring 4 'Survivors', who have survived the 'infection' epidemic and are supposedly 'immune' from the so-called virus. There's Louis, the black guy in the white shirt with the red tie who works as a Junior IT Analyst. Funny story actually, he likes to remind himself of the times where he was laughed at for hitting the shooting range every break during work. Look who's laughing now. Then there's Zoey, the girl in the pink sweater. She's a college student who luckily spent almost all of her hours locked in her dorm-room watching zombie apocalypse movies. Moving on to Francis, the muscular 'biker' with a black vest and a 'goatee'. He's a hands-down rebel with a hatred for almost everything, (this is merely a sample) like Hospitals, Subways, Sewers, Airports, Hotels, Small Towns, Churches, Trainyards, the Woods, Elevators, Stairs, Planes, Helicopters, Mazes, Turnpikes, Walking, Jumping, The Army, Boatpeople Doctors, Cops and Laywers (In his own words, "When are they going be finished practising law?"). It says when the outbreak happened,and people we stockpiling on supplies and fortifying their houses, he went out to the streets with a gun and had some fun. And finally, someone who I think of as the 'Leader' of the group of 'Survivors', the oldest and most skilled members of the team, Bill. Bill is a Vietnam-War Veteran. After a bit of shrapnel to the knee and an honourable discharge (You were expecting a DIS-honourable discharge weren't you?), Bill had no more wars to fight. Well, that is until the infection that is.

So there you have it, a brief glimpse at the characters of the game. So how does it play? Well, the best way to find out is to play it yourself. That is really the general idea of games. You can never truly understand it until you have experienced it. Although, to summarise, it is a slightly repetitive but very enjoyable game. Don't get me wrong, levels essentially can NEVER play the same. The game is run by an AI-System called "The Director" which essentially determines many of the game's factors such as Zombie Spawn points, how many Zombies there are within you vicinity, how many will attack you during a 'Panic Event' (A sudden influx of zombies due to an incident which catches their attention, such as a loud car alarm or the powering-on of machinery) and even the spawning of 'Special Infected'. All of this information is processed in real-time, all of which are determined depending on your teams current health, ammo and performance throughout the game.

So I just used the term 'Special Infected'. You right when you think of them not being just like the rest of the 'horde' or common 'infected'. 'Special Infected' are those which have mutated a little bit more due to their certain characteristics. The 'Special Infected' include the 'Smoker', whose long tongue can grab a 'Survivor' from a fair distance away, constricting them and pulling them back or otherwise dangling them from the air. The 'Boomer' whose vomit can attract loads of common 'Infected' to mass. The 'Hunter' whose athletic ability to climb walls and traverse across rooftops, along with a predator mindset, are something to be scared shitless of in the event that you are unfortunately pounced on from above. The 'Witch', a sad, constantly crying and somewhat lonely 'Infected' who will stay lying on the ground unless disturbed, who then will proceed to rip you to shreds in a matter of seconds. Finally, the 'Tank', a bulky hulk monster with a massive amount of physical strength, able to withstand amazing amounts of bullets.

Okay, well I guess that's enough information about the game at the moment. I'll be sure to touch back on more of it, particularly on how it actually plays, rather than character details and such.

If you believe God has some miracles, you wonder if Satan has a few tricks up his sleeve too...

So I just wanted to give people a little insight into my job as a casual Call Centre Employee for Pizza Hut Australia. I do the whole "Welcome to Pizza Hut! Will that be a Delivery or Pickup today?" routine. I do (as you would) get the odd customer who has no idea what they want, or feels it right to smartass the operator when something doesn't go their way. Sad to say, that's life. I do have a few certain questions though, in relation to customers and my job. Why do customers always need to have the last say on the phone? For example, they try to end the call with a "Bye", so I reply with a "Bye", in which they again reply with a "Bye". I mean, what is so important with having the last say? Oh, don't get confused, I'm only trying to do the same just to piss that person off, as well as test out that little theory. And another thing, why would someone call up a store and then ask what is on our menu? I've gotten plenty of people who have no idea what they want. Sure, they want Pizza, but would it kill them to look at a menu, even online? Lastly, probably the most annoying of all, are those instances where the customer has ordered their meal and automatically expects to get discounted regardless of whether or not they have a coupon for such. People tend to flip out when they hear their meal is roughly twice what they were expecting to pay. They then soon start to whine and complain (not that that does much) and then finally realise that they really haven't mentioned anything at all about having a coupon with them (this being the case of people who actually DO have a coupon). Others just accept it. Then there are those really strange people who say that there are store specials which discount the pizzas. They don't tend to realise that these things should be taken up with the store, and not the call centre. Half the time people think they're calling up the actual Pizza Hut store directly anyway, which seems pretty stupid. I can't see myself doing that job for much longer, and I will definitely be quitting by the time football season starts and I can get back to Refereeing.

I've also been talking in my Forum (Monster Hunter Freedom 2 (PSP) about having an MHF2 Forum Exclusive raffle. Just like the NeoRaffle, it will work in the same way, except that there might be a restriction on sending out real items to other people (which might lead to trouble). However, there can be no limit to what can be on offer, and at the moment, I have ideas for a number of items including (but not limited to) wallpapers, avatars, banners, videos, pictures, artwork, fanfic opportunities, special threads, special privileges, soundtracks, sound-effects, interviews and so on. Ideas would be great and feedback too would be appreciated.

Machi's Pick of the Week

A while back, I made a User Review for the Japanese Version of the game, Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G. Oh yeah, I'm sure your thinking that it is only natural that a Monster Hunter Forum Mod will like a Monster Hunter game. While at the moment there are no new additions to the English version of the game while compared to the Japanese version, I felt it completely fine to edit the Review so it said 'Freedom Unite' instead of 'Portable 2nd G'. Seeing as the forum also got a name change, it seems to blend in well now. Here is that review, which practically does the "Machi's Pick of the Week" already.

quote Excellent Expansion - United

It was never imagined that another game would be able to overcome Monster Hunter Freedom 2, until now. Unlike what you'd expect with such an excellent quality game, there are no copycat series which can live up to the image, that is Monster Hunter. Monster Hunter Freedom 2 has finally met its match however, with its expansion version, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. This new, while separate game, is essentially a Monster Hunter Freedom 2 game itself, only comprehensively expanded to accommodate ten-fold of what its predecessor contained. Not only does this make the game exceptionally better, but outperforming what was once thought a game of 'perfection'. While other game industries and critics may think that Monster Hunter Freedom Unite lacks in certain aspects, that is not the case in the world of demand. Demand for a game of high-class is something to be admired by other gaming companies. Monster Hunter Freedom Unite sees itself as one of the most popular Playstation Portable games in Japan, ever. Selling more than 1 million copies in less than a week (in Japan only) is definitely something to note Monster Hunter Freedom Unite on and it's worthiness among gamers.

The combat system is still the same as it was in previous games. Your player is dropped of in a location and using the weapon and armour they choose to begin the mission with, are pitted against a monster in which they are to seek out within another area of that location. You main goal is usually either killing that main monster or gathering a number of certain items, found specifically in that area. Unlike the usual hack and slash games, players use a lot of strategic thinking when fighting. Should yo choose to either attack the monster head on, or use distractions to support your battle such as pitfall traps or flash bombs to stun your enemy. In the end, if the main monster is slain, you can 'carve' items from the fallen monster in order to obtain materials to help create and improve stronger armour and weapons.

Monster Hunter Freedom Unite has thousands of new additions, all of which are welcomed with open arms by players. The addition of new missions certainly increases replayability, while tons of new monsters are exceptionally brilliant. Monsters from another game of the series, the ever popular PC game Monster Hunter Frontier®, have been introduced. Queen Vespoid, Volganos, Hypnock, Ucamulbas, Yamatsukami and the game's (MHP2G) flagship featured, Narugakaruga. There is also the addition of newly coloured or breed monsters of the previous game, which include a new Daimyo Hermitaur, a Red Shogun Ceanataur, a green Congalala and a Desert Blangonga. These slightly different coloured monsters which are supposedly stronger, and much more varied in their attacks.

New maps include the memorable Rainforest "Ocean of Trees" area from Monster Hunter Frontier®. A slightly surprising addition is of Generation 1 maps. These are the maps featured on the previous generation of Monster Hunter games, Monster Hunter® and Monster Hunter Freedom®. Exactly how you remember, the Desert, Swamp, Jungle and Volcano remain in their untouched, beautiful environment, image.

With the new Monsters, you can expect to see the obvious, new items, new weapons and new pieces of armour. Along with this, another Sharpness setting (Purple) is available as well as another Armour Crystal to improve your armours defence even higher! Not stopping there, weapons also have yet another upgrade to them, allowing another increase in attacking power.

One of the best additions to the game is the remarkable ability to have a Felyne Warrior Companion alongside your quest. One which you can specifically hand pick from the Feylne Agent outside your house, or even a Felyne you already know working as a Chef in your kitchen. This Felyne can train and help you in your quests with as much ability and intellect as any other hunter would have. Your Felyne, by command, can gather items and attack monsters and even provide you with support in tough situations. This may be healing you or even hitting you to revive you from a 'knocked-out' state, which is very helpful in lonely situations. The implementation of a Felyne Warrior is enjoyable for those without the ability to connect to others who have the game. As stated, they are essentially a companion for a lone hunter, which also gives a sense of trust, companionship and even dependability within the player.

With new missions added, a new 'Quest giver', the Yellow Lady in the Gathering Hall, allows even higher Hunter Ranks obtainable. The highest is currently HR9, compared to the previous HR7. This means that new missions for HR8 & 9 are significantly harder and label 'Real G-Rank Missions'. These missions, instead of containing only 1 monster to defeat, contains 3 monsters of exceptional ability, which you must beat one by one and defeat all 3 in order to successfully complete the quest. These should prove a challenge to even the most experienced hunter.

Summarising the past paragraphs in a statement to determine whether or not this game is worth adding to your collection, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is a game of magnificent standards. Magnificent being almost perfection. It would be biased to call a game perfect, but Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is so tempting to be ranked such.

We're all born with an expiration date. No one lasts forever. Life is nothing but a grace period - for turning our genetic material into the next generation. The data of life is transferred from parent to child. That's how it works.

Well, after about a year of loyalty to my 'freely customisable' BlogSpot Blog, I've finally decided to finish it and move to here permanently. You might have noticed that my very first Blog Entry here had me wondering whether I'd be able to live with both or not. The truth is, that it was really a big hassle to take care of. I was always feeling obligated to post there, and at times really drain my feelings. The only problem was that since it was really such an empty place to do so, no body would ever notice, which kind of defeats the point of a blog if you ask me. So in other words, this will now be my sacred ground. I'll be posting here in my NeoBlog what I'd normally post in my old blog. Also, you may have noticed that small exert (quote) up top. I've decided that from time to time-to-time I'll be starting off entries with a quote of sorts. Mostly from my vast array of interests which span over games, movies, tv and books (Expect more Metal Gear ones). Kudos to whoever can guess where they come from. Make a game out of it. First one wins.

I'm also thinking that at least every week I'll have some sort of "Machi's Pick of the Week" or something. For example, today I'm going to tell you guys about Black Mesa Source

What is it exactly? Well, as the team of the project have said:

quote Black Mesa Source Project Team

Black Mesa (formerly Black Mesa: Source) is a Half-Life 2 total conversion remaking VALVe Software's award-winning PC game, Half-Life. Utilizing the Source engine, Black Mesa will reintroduce the player as Doctor Gordon Freeman, along with the original cast of memorable characters and environments seen in Half-Life. Black Mesa was built and founded on the basis that Half-Life: Source was inadequate as the Source engine port of Half-Life, regardless of the intentions of VALVe Software. As such, Black Mesa was founded to fully reconstruct the Half-Life universe utilizing Source to its fullest potential in terms of art detail, level sizes and code features. This total conversion will not require Half-Life: Source to play - only a copy of any Source Engine game installed on Steam.

For those who haven't heard of Half Life before, I suggest you consult Wikipedia. Anyway, I believe that this project has been in development for several years now, and there are hopes that the finalisation of it is set for sometime this year. I myself have not fully played the original Half Life before, but I have however played Half-Life 2, Episode 1 and Episode 2. All I can say is that they should be considered an art-form. I mean really, I've gotten so sucked into those games that I was even having difficulty being able to distinguish fiction from reality. Mind you, outside of the game, not the actual game itself. To simplify, I started feeling really disoriented, and then started to really connect with the characters of the game, even considered them more than just animated characters. Now I really am not that much of an impressionable mind. I mean, I play load of GTA, hell I even comprehensively analyse the storyline and whatnot, yet you don't see me running amok out there with a gun in my hand and the game in my mind. You see? Half Life is just that good. I would rate it as one of my top 5 favourite series of all-time. Of all-time! Meaning that I pledge allegiance to the favouritism of it the rest of my life. No wait, that sounded a bit tacky. It's just that good a game. I suggest for those who've never heard of it before, do what you can to become acquainted with it. Hell, if you can't play it yourself, got to a friends house, go to a internet gaming compound, steal it for gods sake. Just play it and you'll see what I mean.

Oh, now looking back, I've just rambled on about Half Life 2 instead of Black Mesa Source. Well, I guess I'll just finish this off with letting you guys listen to this song, available for download from the Black Mesa Source Website. It is part of the Soundtrack for the project, entitled "End Credits (Part 2)".

Today I turn, well my age isn't important. It's the occasion that's important. To be quite honest, this years b-day has been the quietest it's ever been. I didn't really want anything special, but to just have time for the things that I wanted to do. I went and got a few games from the EB Games bargin bin (money is a bit tight atm) and some off the shelves. I also got a few books of my interest, such as the Dexter series by Jeff Lindsay. Although I've heard that there are vast differences between the show and the novel, I'll still be as eager to read them.

Funnily enough, my parents forgot their wedding anniversary, which was 10 days ago. They were so shocked that they'd forgotten it (again!) that they weren't sure whether or not to try to make up for it. I told them as a B-Day present to me, they should both make up for that event and do something for themselves for a change and really enjoy themselves as best they can. It's something I'm sure they don't have much time for, I mean they've been working like crazy over the past month, it's no wonder they forgot.

Also, just yesterday I received a call about a job interview for a call center. Thank god for that, I was beginning to wonder if I'd get any reply from anything at all. Hopefully I'll be able to land a job sometime soon and gather more money.

Anyway, just hoping that all you guys can give your best wishes to myself on this 'glorious' day. Don't forget, it's Twin_Master's birthday as well, so as a sign of goodwill, send him a PM wishing him a great birthday. Don't tell him it was me though, I want to see the shock on his face when he receives B-Day PMs from loads of people he most likely won't know.

So approximately 11 Hours from this post, GTAIV will finally be released in Australia on PC. By then, those within the US will probably already have opened up their little bundles of joy and be wildly playing away. As I've previously mentioned in my Blogspot blog, the whole waiting process of GTAIV has been having negative affects on myself.

The whole anticipation for the game has left me really, well disturbed. Altered sleeping patterns, not to mention altered thinking (I'm constantly thinking about GTA IV *Goes Crazy*). Just last night, I was up till 2AM trying to get to sleep. I could not stop thinking about the game, hence my mind was too busy contemplating the game rather than relaxing, so it was extremely difficult to get into a calm state of mind to fall asleep. I also had a strange sensation in my eyes. I'm not sure how to quite explain it, but I'm sure we can all relate. You know that feeling where your eyes get that slight weird tingling sensation, where you want to close your eyes when open, but open them when closed? Well, I felt really frustrated by this sensation. It was this annoying feeling that kept me from being able to close my eyes for more than 10 minutes. In the end, by around midnight, I ended up playing San Andreas on the PS2 (Oh great, yeah, that will help sort things out, if not make things much better :P). By 2-ish, I had managed to tired myself out that I threw myself into bed and forced myself to close my eyes and think of nothing else. No matter what, I forced myself to stay in my bed and lie completely still, no matter how uncomfortable I felt.

Oh great, to top this all off, I just found out that GTAIV for me will be delayed another day. Great, another day of pain and suffering. I'll probably do an all nighter the night before I get the game then, as I'll be getting it only by the afternoon. This shouldn't be too bad, as I also plan on playing it all night as soon as I get it, so I should get some sleep before then to accumulate energy for that big night.

So I recently read Chad's blog entry on the appropriate use of NeoBlogs within the site. After providing my thoughts and feedback on the issue, I still have thoughts on whether or not to continue posting up entries here. Obviously, there is still doubt over the nature of these blogs and I am pretty much sceptical as to whether or not I am allowed to post things such as my rants here. However, it is in my strong opinion that blogs do remain generalised and not Gaming/Hardware restricted. To me, if that were to happen, things would be much more 'free' and much easier. Otherwise you'd have to constantly monitor your own blog entries as well as others (this would especially be the task of Supermoderators and NeoStaff most likely) to see that it complied with Neoseeker's blogging code of conduct. Also, it'd be much like a prison situation. Okay, maybe not as outrageous as that, but think of it as school all over again. You don't exactly have that freedom to do what you want and the whole interest in it gets destroyed over time. Let's all be honest, at some point in our schooling life we did eventually get sick and tired of the education system. Anyway, after I had heard rumours about the whole issue of keeping Blogs restricted to gaming only, the whole concept of NeoBlogs really threw my interest out the window. At that point I had lost a lot of enthusiasm for the system and was certain that it was doomed for failure. However, in light of recent opposing to the claim, I am confident that I will continue to bring 'High-Quality' non-gaming blog entries to NeoBlogs in the future. Also, in response to my first blog entry in which I pondered over whether or not I should move my blogging activity permanently to NeoBlogs, I've decided that I'm going to maintain both.

So I just got this NeoPM earlier today from Artificer which detailed how to create your own forum themes (a general guide for most moderators). It coincidently linked to one of his blog entries, which in turn introduced me to Neoseeker's new blogging system. So since then, I've been thinking of appropriate themes for my forum, Monster Hunter Freedom 2 (PSP). What do you think might be some good colour variations of the forum? I've also had the idea of having a forum competition, where one of the prizes may be that the forum member can create their own forum theme and have it implemented under their name. Thoughts on this also?

News has just been released of a Rockstar Copyright FAQ detailing the restrictions and information about installing GTAIV on your computer. As I just noticed on the GTA4.net fansite, a brief outline of what is mentioned is listed below.

Copy protection Securom: The original disc is required for playing (Execpt: Download version of GTA 4, for example from Direct 2 Drive)

Requirements for playing (singleplayer): Games for Windows Live account for saving/achievements (1x free creation), original disc, Securom runs in the background

Requirements for playing (multiplayer): Active internet connection, Games for Windows Live account, For uploading videos: Rockstar Social Club Account.

If you don't have web access or don't want to connect your gaming PC to the Internet, Rockstar wants to offer a not yet specified system to activate GTA 4 via another PC with web access. Details are supposed to be available on launch.

For the normal GTA 4 (PC) version with disc installation, activations are unlimited. But the original disc is required for playing.

This does not apply for legally downloaded versions of GTA 4: Depending on the vendor the following is possible: Five parallel installations with the possibility to revive a "free installation, if an old installation is deleted. For this purpose the customer has to have web access with the PC GTA 4 is installed on.

Those playing GTA 4 with an illegally hacked version have, according to Rockstar, to fear that the game will not be fully playable.

If you change two major components of your PC (like the graphics card or the CPU), you will possible have to reactivate GTA 4.

For only 3 days in Kyoto, we've found a surprising number of Monster Hunter memorabilia. Our first glimpse of the Monster Hunter Products happened to be the Nachos I mentioned earlier. These were conveniently at a small 24hr shop across the road. Needless to mention, Adam (TM) plans on keeping the packaging.

After locating the local bookstore, obviously our intentions where clear. Find any and every bit of Monster Hunter on the shelves. Sure enough, we hit the jackpot. I counted at least 6 different Monster Hunter books, and some weren't even Guide Books. To the best of my memory, there was a "Monster Hunter" Official Guidebook, "Monster Hunter G (Wii)" Official Guide Book, "Monster Hunter G (PS2)" Guide Book (Not the lack of 'Official'), "Monster Hunter Portable 2nd" Official Guide Book, and a set of children's books. Much like the classic tales you'd find in your bookstore, these ones were directed at toddlers, outlining mini adventures of Poogie and Felynes/Melynxs.

After that, we had been interested in checking out the local Electronics Store. The store, "BIC Camera' had a amazingly huge amount of products, and basically everything we wanted from Australia, was here in the store, at much lower prices. PSP batteries, yep. Memory Sticks. And you guessed it, an entire row of Monster Hunter stuff. Monster Hunter Tri (Wii) was selling at around $33. There was also decorations for your Wii Console and an assortment of books.

There were so many things to list in terms of literature, Monster Hunter related. I'll do my best to list everything. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera on me at the time (facepalm).

That's all I can remember off the top of my head. I think there might have been one about areas too, but I can't be too sure. The MHP2G was around 2100 Yen. The Notebook 700 Yen. And the Small notebook guides around 500 Yen each.

So, what can you guess I got out of all these items listed? Oh, let me list them.

Monster Hunter Portable 2

Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G

An unofficial guidebook for Monster Hunter 3 (tri)

Mind you, they are exceptionally heavy and thick. About a bit thicker than your average bible. Also, by sheer luck, I attempted to buy the MH3 Notebook too, but the clerk advised me that you had to actually write in it, or something. He then, to my shock, pulled out the OFFICIAL Monster Hunter 3 (tri) guidebook. Needless to say, I was jumping over the counter to grab that book out of his hands. I'm pretty happy with my now, heavy collection of 4 'bible' sized guidebooks.

But wait, that's not all. After a year of waiting, Adam and I finally got some new memory sticks. 8GBs, for around 5400 Yen each. This is roughly $30 AUD cheaper than what they sell back home. So all in all, it was a great deal. I think after all that, we've spent a bit much, and we haven't even gotten to Tokyo yet.

Lastly, one final note. I've an important question to ask. PSP batteries. When attempting to buy one for my PSP-1000 (Phat) Australian, the store clerk assured me that a Japanese 2200mHa battery would not work with my PSP. Although I couldn't verify this with my PSP, I would like to know if that is the case. Would a foreign (BUT official Sony product) battery, work on my Australian Phat PSP? I'll have to forgo the opportunity in Japan, BUT in America I will probably attempt to get one again. Would the American version (but Sony still) battery work? Thanks all, and keep reading.